Pacific Northwest

A wildlife favorite: Salmonberry. This shrub hosts bright pink flowers and yellow or salmon-red fruits resembling blackberries in all but color. Birds and small mammals love to feast on the sweet berries.

Southeast

A wildlife favorite: Climbing aster. With its unusual rambling habit and abundance of blooms, this shrub is a good choice for gardens. It is a caterpillar food plant for the American Painted Lady butterfly and provides nectar for many species of adult butterflies.

Southwest

A wildlife favorite: Skunkbush sumac. One of the more widespread sumacs in the West, this shrub provides fruit that is an important source of winter food for many songbirds, as well as gamebirds and a number of small mammals.

“Water in different types of containers. Some in bird baths (low and high), in glass bowls, in plastic/clay plant saucers with a rock in the middle, hanging in the trees, running across rocks… then sit back and enjoy!”

-Carol S., Georgia

Photo donated by Paul Lackey

“Providing the basic ‘four’ — food, water, shelter, places to raise young. My rule has become: If I plant it, a native critter must want to eat it or its nectar, or build a nest in it.”

I’m a mosquito magnet! In the short time it takes me to fill up a watering can from my rain barrel, I’m covered with half a dozen bites. Within a matter of hours, though, I forget all about the little bloodsuckers and the marks they’ve left behind.

Unfortunately, my plants can’t recover so quickly from an insect invasion. Fortunately, here are four birds that you can attract to your backyard to keep bugs at bay naturally.

Purple Martin: Attracting these mosquito-eating members of the swallow family can be as simple as providing a bird box. In the Eastern United States, purple martins nest almost exclusively in nest boxes, while west of the Rockies they often nest in tree cavities and building crevices.

House Wren: These birds range throughout most of the lower 48 states during parts of the year. House wrens aren’t picky about nesting sites and may nest in nest boxes, building crevices or even mailboxes. Include low-lying shrubs (such as American beautyberry) or brush piles in your yard for cover, nesting materials and food to attract them.

Photo of Common Nighthawk by Brian Meyer

Common Nighthawk: These nocturnal birds can be tricky to attract to a backyard unless you have a yard full of insects to eat. Because they’ve also adapted to nest on level surfaces, such as the ground or flat rooftops, they are the perfect visitor for urban gardens.

Baltimore Oriole: These songbirds range from the central Midwest to the Northeast and nest in hanging pouches in deciduous trees. Because they eat fruit and nectar in addition to insects, you can attract them by planting blackberry, serviceberry and cherry for food, as well as elm, sycamore, tupelo and other shade trees as nesting spots.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/08/attract-these-4-birds-to-control-garden-pests/feed/2Six of the Sexiest “Vegetarians” in Your Backyardhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/07/six-of-the-sexiest-vegetarians-in-your-backyard/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/07/six-of-the-sexiest-vegetarians-in-your-backyard/#commentsWed, 11 Jul 2012 02:21:12 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=63238Read more >]]>In a recent poll, 30% of meat eaters said they wouldn’t date a vegetarian. Well, being one myself, I won’t comment on the attractiveness of human vegetarians. However, I can safely say there are quite a few plant-eating beauties among the non-humans. More accurately called “herbivores,” these animals are adapted to primarily eat plant-based foods and may be found right in your own backyard!

The following photos were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. The deadline to enter this year’s contest is July 16, 2012.

American Goldfinch

Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect. (Photo: Michael Henry)

White-Tailed Deer

Though almost entirely herbivorous, eating a wide variety of plants, white-tailed deer have been known to opportunistically feed on nesting songbirds and field mice. (Photo: Trish Satkofsky)

Monarch Butterfly

Unlike the larvae that only eat milkweed, adult monarchs feed on a wide variety of nectar bearing flowers. They will visit many different kinds of flowers in their search for food. (Photo: Dave Hawkins)

Eastern Cottontail

Cottontails feed mainly on herbaceous plants such as clovers, grasses, and low broad-leafed weeds in summer, and buds, twigs, and bark in winter. (Photo: Chuanxiao Li)

Lubber Grasshopper

Eastern lubbers, like most all grasshoppers, can regurgitate recently consumed plant material. This regurgitant is mostly liquid and has a dark brown color and is commonly referred to as ‘tobacco spit.’ (Photo: Pamela Wanamaker)

Gray Squirrel

On very rare occasions, when its usual plant food sources are scarce, Eastern gray squirrels will prey upon insects, frogs, small rodents, and small birds, their eggs and young. (Photo: Colleen Faupel)

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/07/six-of-the-sexiest-vegetarians-in-your-backyard/feed/2Backyard Wildlife Color of the Week: YELLOWhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/backyard-wildlife-color-of-the-week-yellow/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/backyard-wildlife-color-of-the-week-yellow/#commentsFri, 18 May 2012 18:21:31 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=57298Read more >]]>“Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.” – Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

We are in the home stretch of Garden for Wildlife Month! This week, we are featuring backyard flora and fauna that are yellow–a happy and joyful color. (Did you miss last week’s color? View the BLUE blog here.) Does your backyard play host to any of these golden gems?

These photos were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in this year’s contest, visit the contest site.

Western Tanager

The red pigment in the face of the Western Tanager is rhodoxanthin, a pigment rare in birds. It is not manufactured by the bird, as are the pigments used by the other red tanagers. Instead, it must be acquired from the diet, presumably from insects that themselves acquire the pigment from plants. (Photo: Jim Brown)

Aspen

Aspen has been traditionally reputed in many countries to drive off evil spirits, hence it was often planted near dwellings. (Photo: Chad Martens)

Cape May Warbler

The average clutch size of the Cape May Warbler (six) is greater than that of other warblers. This large clutch size may allow Cape May Warbler populations to expand rapidly during outbreaks of their preferred prey, spruce budworms. (Photo: Michael Henry)

Jumping Spider

The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species,making it the largest family of spiderswith about 13% of all species. (Photo: Jeffery Waldorff)

American Goldfinch

Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect. (Photo: Christine Adachi)

Monarch Caterpillar

A Monarch caterpillar can eat enough milkweed in one day to equal its own body weight. Just 9 to 14 days after hatching from its eggs, a caterpillar will grow to about 2 inches long. (Photo: Andrew Halverson)

Yellow Warbler

Life can be dangerous for a small bird. Yellow Warblers have occasionally been found caught in the strands of an orb weaver spider’s web. (Photo: Steven Manly)

Tiger Swallowtail

There are more than 550 species of swallowtail butterflies around the word. Altough the majority are tropical, members of the family are found on all continents except Antarctica. (Photo: Marty Bays)

Goldenrod

Goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergies is mainly produced by ragweed which blooms at the same time as goldenrod but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, so is mainly pollinated by insects. (Photo: Weg Thomas)

Black-Eyed Susan

The Black-Eyed Susan has been the official flower of Maryland since 1918 when it was designated the "Floral Emblem" of Maryland by the General Assembly. (Photo: Marvin De Jong)

Welcome to the second week of Garden for Wildlife Month! This week, we are featuring backyard flora and fauna that are blue–a cool, soothing color. (Did you miss last week’s color? View the RED blog here.) Which of these blue beauties do you find in your backyard?

These photos were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in this year’s contest, visit the contest site.

Indigo Bunting

Like all other blue birds, Indigo Buntings lack blue pigment. Their jewel-like color comes instead from microscopic structures in the feathers that refract and reflect blue light, much like the airborne particles that cause the sky to look blue. (Photo: Steve Creek)

Bluebells

Bluebells have smooth gray-green foliage and nodding clusters of pink buds that open into light blue trumpet-shaped flowers. When they grow in masses, bluebells make a spectacular show. (Photo: Sandra Brooks-Mathers)

Tree Swallows

Outside of the breeding season the Tree Swallow congregates into enormous flocks and night roosts, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands. They gather about an hour before sunset at a roost site, forming a dense cloud. (Photo: Paul Lackey)

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebirds typically have more than one successful brood per year. Young produced in early nests usually leave their parents in summer, but young from later nests frequently stay with their parents over the winter. (Photo: James Alligood)

American Robin Eggs

An American Robin can produce three successful broods in one year. On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November. (Photo: Laura Epps)

Blue Jay

Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds. Their fondness for acorns is credited with helping to spread oak trees after the last glacial period. (Photo: Ray Whitt)

Spicebush Swallowtail

The Spicebush Swallowtail is a common black swallowtail butterfly found in North America, also known as the Green-Clouded butterfly. The swallowtails are unique in that even while feeding, they continue to flutter their wings. (Photo: Joyce Walton)

Great Blue Heron

Despite their impressive size, Great Blue Herons weigh only 5 to 6 pounds thanks in part to their hollow bones—a feature all birds share. The oldest Great Blue Heron, based on banding recovery, was 24 years old. (Photo: Steve Duffey)

Blue Dasher

The Blue Dasher is a dragonfly of the skimmer family. It is common and widely distributed in the United States. Although the species name P. longipennis means "long wings", the wings are not particularly long. (Photo: Bill Houghton)

Steller’s Jay

Steller’s Jays have the dubious honor of being one of the most frequently misspelled names in all of bird watching. Up close, the bird’s dazzling mix of azure and blue is certainly stellar, but that’s not how you spell their name. (Photo: Lori Zappas)

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/backyard-wildlife-color-of-the-week-blue/feed/13Backyard Wildlife Color of the Week: REDhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/backyard-wildlife-color-of-the-week-red/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/05/backyard-wildlife-color-of-the-week-red/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 23:41:52 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=54149Read more >]]>“Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.” -Bill Blass

Each week during Garden for Wildlife Month, we will be featuring backyard flora and fauna of a particular color. This week we are focused on red, a color associated with dominance in a number of animal species. Does your backyard play host to any of the following species?

These photos were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in this year’s contest, visit the contest site.

Scarlet Tanager

A striking black-winged red bird, the Scarlet Tanager is a common species of the eastern forest interior. Despite its brilliant coloring it is often overlooked because of its rather secretive behavior and its preference for the forest canopy. (Photo: Daniel Marquis)

Ladybug

Ladybugs are favored by farmers as voracious pest-eaters. By the end of its three-to-six-week life, a ladybug may eat 5,000 plant-eating insects. (Photo: David Bahr)

House Finch

The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt. So the more pigment in the food, the redder the male. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find, perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings. (Photo: Gregory Fisher)

Pileated Woodpecker

The Pileated Woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds on the continent. They dig characteristically rectangular holes in trees to find ants. These excavations can be so broad and deep that they can cause small trees to break in half. (Photo: Hal and Kirstin Snyder)

Red Spotted Newt

The strikingly colored juvenile stage (terrestrial) of the Red Spotted Newt is followed by the olive-green colored adult stage (aquatic). They have a lifespan of 12 to 15 years in the wild, and may grow to 5 inches in length. (Photo: John Kornet)

Cardinal Flower

Although relatively common, overpicking this handsome wildflower has resulted in its scarcity in some areas. Since most insects find it difficult to navigate the long tubular flowers, Cardinal Flower depends on hummingbirds, which feed on the nectar, for pollination. (Photo: Paul Lackey)

Pyrrhuloxia

A distinctive songbird of arid scrublands, the Pyrrhuloxia lives in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It superficially resembles its close relative, the Northern Cardinal. Foraging winter flocks of Pyrrhuloxias may number as many as 1,000 birds. (Photo: Daniel Ruf)

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak participates in incubation of the eggs, accounting for about 1/3 of the time during the day (the female incubates over night). Both sexes sing quietly to each other when they exchange places. (Photo: Lori Deiter)

Northern Cardinal

Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest. This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. Cardinals don’t migrate or molt into a dull plumage. (Photo: Stan Lewis)

To save gas, make sure your vehicle's speed doesn't exceed that of a pronghorn antelope. At up to 60 mph, pronghorns are the fastest land animals in North America. (Photo donated by Helena Reynolds)

I don’t personally gas up my car very often for two reasons. First, I drive a hybrid. Second, I tend to “conveniently” run out of gas just before my husband plans to take my car. In my mind, having him deal with the gas station, instead of me, is tantamount to receiving flowers on my birthday (well…almost).

If you, too, are looking for easy ways to avoid the gas station, here are some money and planet-saving tips.

1) Bum a ride – Carpool with reliable friends and colleagues. Or, look into safe rideshare options, like NuRide, that provide additional incentives for smart commuting. Alternatively, mass transportation will take you out of the driver’s seat altogether.

2) Work fewer days (in the office) – Ask your employer if teleworking or working a condensed schedule with longer hours (ex. 9 days on, 1 day off) are options. While you’re at it, see if there’s any flexibility with workday start or end times that might allow you to avoid gas and time-wasting rush hour traffic.

3) Think small – When renting a car for your next vacation, think small–or hybrid, if available–as they tend to be more fuel efficient. If you’re in the market to buy a fuel-efficient vehicle, try the U.S. Department of Energy’s Find-a-Car Tool.

4) Slow down and hang back – Aggressive driving (speeding, tailgating, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/slackers-guide-to-saving-gas/feed/1Ten “Foxy and I Know It” Photoshttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/ten-foxy-and-i-know-it-photos/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/ten-foxy-and-i-know-it-photos/#commentsSat, 07 Apr 2012 11:32:11 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=52649Read more >]]>There’s no doubt about it. Foxes are handsome animals. If you need convincing, just take a look at this video clip of a gorgeous Arctic Fox that National Wildlife Federation naturalist, David Mizejewski, recently brought to the Martha Stewart Show. (Hint: The fox follows the penguin, another fine-looking critter, at about 1 minute 30 seconds.)

Then, enjoy the following “foxy” photos that were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in the contest or see winners of previous years, visit the contest site.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/ten-foxy-and-i-know-it-photos/feed/22Vote for the “Face of Garden for Wildlife Month”http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/vote-for-the-face-of-garden-for-wildlife-month/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/vote-for-the-face-of-garden-for-wildlife-month/#commentsThu, 05 Apr 2012 20:57:30 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=52194Read more >]]>Why are some of your favorite backyard wildlife species feeling a little competitive this spring? Because they all want to be the new “Face of Garden for Wildlife Month!” And they need YOU to help decide the winner!